I WAS shocked to read about the introduction of MyChoice at Warrington and Halton Hospital Trust.

It is a scheme whereby patients, or should I say customers, can pay privately for treatments which were previously offered by the NHS free to all at the point of use.

Most of the procedures listed for MyChoice need massive teams of surgeons, anaesthetists, ODPs, theatre nurses, porters, ward staff, domestic staff, biochemists, cardiac technicians, physios, discharge planners etc.

Will they use NHS staff for the lucky few who can afford to pay?

I am very sad to say that this is the point where the two tier health system is out in the open.

It’s almost complete now.

The charging codes have been synchronised across trusts and CCGs, the billing system is in place, introduced under cover of so-called health tourism and migrant charges but in reality it was getting all the systems in place (at public expense using public money for all the trials and errors, consultancy firms, accountants, lawyers, debt collectors and procedures etc) in readiness for charging us all and streamlining all systems to make them attractive to private profiteers.

MyChoice in Warrington and Halton Hospitals trust has expanded the list of private treatments offered.

No doubt after a year or so, if successful, it will be sold off to a private profiteer such as Branson.

These private profiteers won’t take the flack for all the failures, the redundancies, the elimination of procedures and medicines from the nhs, the deliberately created waiting lists and most heinous of all, the deaths and suffering of so many whileall this has gone on.

And when or if the private charges don’t provide enough profit, the private businesses who have been profiteering from those privatised services will just walk away unscathed leaving patients/customers to suffer and leaving what’s left of the NHS to pick up the pieces.

Many of us have written to our Members of Parliament calling on them to stand up and be counted, to resist the imposition of a two tier health system where those that can pay can afford to be treated, to jump the queue, to receive better coverage than those who can’t pay.

We call upon our MPs to show their outrage at this latest phase of privatisation and hold the CCG to account.

To call for the immediate reinstatement of our NHS as a universal service, publicly funded and publicly provided free to all at the point of use regardless of post code or their ability to pay privately.

In addition, MPs should ensure that private profiteers can not be allowed to use the NHS logo, that includes MyChoice even if it is part of the hospital trust in Warrington, for now.

MARY WHITBY Warrington